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ELi's Conflict of Interest Policies

Author:

Alice Dreger

A small town news cooperative is bound to run into conflicts of interest. Here's how we try to manage them:

Our Board of Director's Conflict of Interest Policy: The main thing you need to know about potential financial conflicts of interest for our Board of Directors is that members of the ELi Board and their immediate household and family members are prohibited from profitting from ELi. So if you see our board members functioning as editors, reporters, technical advisors, or in any other staff role, rest assured they are doing that work voluntarily (unpaid). We also maintain the formal Conflict of Interest Policy recommended by the IRS for non-profits. You can read that by clicking here.

Our Editors' Conflict of Interest Policy: The Board of Directors has approved a Conflict of Interest policy for our editors. You can read that by clicking here. As noted in the policy, each year our editors sign a statement agreeing to adhere to the policy.

Management of Reporters' Potential Conflicts of Interest: With every submission, reporters are required to complete a 10-point checklist of questions which includes a question about potential conflicts of interest.

You will notice that many of our articles include disclosures of potential conflicts of interest by authors and editors.